Barbie & European Space Agency Collab on Samantha Cristoforetti Doll

Barbie and the European Space Agency (ESA) have partnered to create a doll in the likeness of Samantha Cristoforetti, the only active female astronaut in Europe.

Through the partnership, Barbie and the ESA aim to inspire girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists. The collaboration between the two entities is part of the Barbie Dream Gap Project, an ongoing initiative with the goal of leveling the playing field for girls around the world.

To kick off the collaboration, a series of new short-form videos aimed at parents and young girls will be released as the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing nears. They will show Cristoforetti welcoming girls from Germany, the U.K., France and Italy into the ESA European Astronaut center in Cologne, Germany, where they shadow her and quiz her about her job. There will also be kids-targeted content highlighting Cristoforetti’s achievements on Barbie’s YouTube vlogger channel.

Isabel Ferrer, European director of marketing for Barbie, said: “We are proud to launch this collaboration with the ESA with a clear goal: to inspire girls to become the next generation of astronauts, engineers and space scientists. Barbie has always shown girls that they can be anything, giving them the opportunity to interpret different roles through play and embark on a countless number of careers encouraging imagination and self-expression. We know how important it is for girls to have role models and this new ESA collaboration helps us to take this to an astronomical new level.”

Ersilia Vaudo-Scarpetta, chief diversity officer for ESA, added: “While boys and girls generally achieve the same scores in science and math, few girls dream of becoming scientists, engineers, or space professionals. Social and cultural factors play an important role in the attitude of the family environment towards science and scientific professions. The European Space Agency is strongly engaged in promoting girls’ interest in STEM subjects and space careers in particular, as we need a diversity of talents to imagine and enable the future in space. We are therefore proud to launch ESA’s collaboration with Barbie, highlighting inspiring role models as the astronauts and encouraging girls to believe in themselves, look at the sky and dream high.”